There had been a time in her life when the telephone was the height of technological advancement. Cars were still massive metal machines that roared as they moved when she was a child. Now, phones were carried in pockets and purses, usually used for everything other than calling people.
It was a glorious age to live in.
Her phone, practically a tiny computer that still fascinated her, buzzed inside her purse. She chewed her lip. She knew who would be on the other end of that call. What would they think of her being in Wales? Surely, they knew about the war between the red and white dragons. She wondered if her family would side with their distant, elemental cousins, if the flames burning inside of them would sway them one way or another.
No, her family would stay in Egypt. They would keep their heads down and their noses out of the wars of other creatures. It was not their place to rouse the anger of the world around them, for if the gold dragons took to war then their country would finally turn upon them.
She pulled the phone from the deep caverns of her messy purse and stared at the number. Behind it, a familiar face flashed. Aditi was all smiles, all the time. But, Farida was not in the mood for her cheer, or the games her parents played by using her cousin’s phone to contact her.
Farida swiped the red button and tossed the phone back into her purse. Her parents could leave a voice mail.
The sun was going down and Farida felt restless. Her mind wandered back to the red dragon and his presence, her fingers twitching as if she could feel his skin beneath them. She glanced out the window to the city below. It was not lit up like New York, but she was sure there was some kind of night life flourishing here. It would be full of beer and raucous men.
Much like the burgundy haired dragon. At one point, he’d been close enough for her to reach out and pull into her body. What would it have felt like? Would she have felt the bulge of what he kept hidden in his pants? She chewed her lip, falling into her imagination.
Farida threw her hands up in the air. She would not obsess over a man all night. She had work in the morning, a job that she’d taken seriously for a good portion of her life. This red dragon was not about to walk in and jumble her brain. Especially not when he already had a mate of his own!
There was no way in hell.
The phone buzzed inside her purse. Whoever had called had, indeed, left a voicemail. Curious and yearning for a distraction from the yet nameless man taking up space inside her head, she swiped the button across the screen and held the phone up to her ear.
Aditi’s voice greeted her, cheerful while still being soft. Her cousin wondered where she was in the world this time. Farida could almost hear the young dragon’s fingers tracing lines across a world map as she wondered. Farida wished she could trust Aditi and call her back, to hear a familiar voice and have the feeling of home settle over her even while in Wales. But, her parents were conniving and Farida told herself she couldn’t take the chance that they weren’t waiting behind Aditi the whole time.
Yet, her fingers danced across the phone screen and the device began to hum in her hand. Farida yearned for the sound of home, for the kinship of her cousin and her brethren. She held the phone up to her ear once more, heart skipping a beat when the humming stopped.
“Aditi?” Farida asked into the tiny microphone of the handheld device.
“Oh, Farida,” A familiar voice said. It was not the one that Farida had expected, although she should have. She knew better.
“Hello, Mother.”
“Farida,” her mother chided. “When will you return? Your father is getting old and would like to step down from his role. He cannot do that if his only child is running around the world, kicking up dust wherever she goes. We have arranged a nice marriage for you. We believe that you would not only be happy, but bear us beautiful, Egyptian grandchildren.”
Farida groaned, a sound that devolved into a growl while her beast lingered so close to the surface. The serpent-like beast had been awakened by the Welsh dragon earlier, and refused to settle back down. At the mention of the marriage her mother claimed would make her happy, the beast thrashed.
“Father has many more good years left in him. You and I both know a dragon’s life is long. I’m not coming home any time soon.”
“I thought you might say that, daughter. You have a duty to your family and your people that you will have to fulfill someday. You cannot run from your life forever, child. We cannot allow you to keep running.”
“You can do nothing while you are there and I am here,” Farida said as a tiny bit of courage rose up inside of her. She was safely hidden away in Wales while her mother would never leave Egypt. “Therefore, your words are empty threats.”
Farida could hear her mother pull the phone away and whisper to someone else in the room. She could not hear who the other person was, but she figured it had to be her father or Aditi. Sometimes, Farida wished she could hand over the role she’d been born into over to her cousin. Aditi would have taken the role without a second thought. Egypt was the only world she was interested in. The young dragon only dreamed of a happy marriage and cute children.
Unfortunately, those were not the things that interested Farida. The heir to the Egyptian dragon family dreamed of adventure, of a world far beyond her grasp as a princess. She certainly did not dream of marrying her childhood friend and letting him take her power, her freedom from her hands.
“Good night, Mother.”
Farida hung up the phone before her mother could say anything more. She tried not to think about who might have been in the background, about the threat her mother had let roll off her tongue. It meant nothing as long as she was here and her mother was in Egypt.
Farida crawled onto her bed and pulled a portable game system out of her bag in an attempt to forget the world. She’d been gloriously late to video games. By the time she discovered them, there was already a wealth of adventurous and vividly colored games for her to choose from. The small screen illuminated the world around her and she fell into a heroic quest for a sword while she protected herself from the memory of the red dragon man’s face.
***
Farida was assigned to another room on a different floor. She was in charge of setting up the invisible voice and motion detecting tech that would allow Ambassadors and politicians and security to interact with the mainframe. Anyone with a clearance level would be able to activate lights, fire alarms, and a great number of other things with only their voice. Her favorite were the projectors in the conference rooms.
She hoped that she wouldn’t have to input the burgundy haired dragon man’s security code and fingerprints. Her assignment on another floor would, hopefully, keep her hidden from his prying attitude.
At least, that’s what she told herself she was hiding from. Not the fact that he brought such vivid images to her mind and a hot rush to her cheeks. Farida was more than happy to ignore the urges inside of her and keep her inexperience a secret for as long as she could.
But, she had no such luck today. She was on her hands and knees beneath a computer desk when someone entered the room. The intruder was quieter than a human, and the smell in the air told her exactly who it was. He smelled of smoke and wood, much like he had yesterday. It was like he was an ember that never stopped burning.
Beneath the desk, her hand tightened around the cords she’d been untangling. He didn’t say anything. Did he even notice her? How could he not? Her rear was presented in the air while she rested on her hands and knees. The idea of him watching her rear sent a jolt of thrill through her. It made her bite her lip and smile.
She could deal with him. For now. She could tease and joke until she was reassigned and it was time for them to part their ways. It might even be fun, she pondered, to get a rise out of him.
“Shouldn’t you be watching over your mate? Or the pregnant one?” Farida asked beneath the desk, her voice echoing around her as she prodded. Farida hadn’t seen head nor hair of the minx-like Welsh woman all day and she’
d been oddly grateful.
“As much as I would like to spend my life with another dragon, Rhiannon is not the dragon for me. If her mate heard you call her mine, he would bring the Embassy down around us if only to squash me like a bug.
“Besides, Rhiannon was advised to spend the day off her feet. That child of hers is already so rambunctious that it fractured a rib from the inside.”
Farida felt relief wash over her, like the cool crash of an ocean wave. Not for Rhiannon’s pain, but to know that the two of them were not bound to one another by fate. Then again, he hadn’t mentioned the Welsh girl. Farida let the feeling ride through her and waited for it to fade before she spoke again, her voice becoming level.
“Can I help you, Dragon?” she asked from beneath the desk, not bothering to pull out from her spot of hiding. In fact, she might have swayed her rear a little, just enough to grab his attention. Her beast purred inside her mind, even if Farida told it they were both being ludicrous.
When he spoke, she could hear the tightness in his throat. “I thought I would keep you company for the day, prevent you from sabotaging anything in the Embassy.”
This time she retreated from the tangled cords and sat back on her haunches to look up at the dragon man. Her beast sat coiled near the surface. It looked out at him, and instead of hissing, it warmed. Farida felt the space between her brows crinkle.
“Still can’t trust me?”
He was leaning back, arms crossed over his chest like he’d simply been enjoying the view. His eyes now bored holes through her, as if he could tear away her layers and see the beast beneath her skin. She was sure she must smell like something other to him, but if he’d never left his own country her scent might have been difficult to place.
Could he smell the fire they shared? Did it burn the same for him?
She pushed herself off the floor, careful not to flash anything private in her pencil skirt. Why had she worn it? Was it the way the skirt hugged her meager curves like a lover? Or, had it been for a chance to see his eyes rove over her legs the way it did as she stood?
The dragon man closed the space between them, trying to be intimidating. His eyes burned into hers and his arms fell away from his chest, a stance that made him look ready to attack at a moment’s notice. But, Farida was not afraid of this man.
They were equals.
“I can’t trust someone who hides what they are,” he said.
The walls around them were no longer glass. Instead, they were behind closed doors, completely and utterly alone. Farida knew that the building had been outfitted with soundproofing in certain areas. This room was one of them.
“Isn’t that what you do, too, when you go out on the town? You wear a silver band to appease your government, but the people you see on the streets do not know what you are when they drink with you, when they lay with you.
“What I’m doing is no different. I’m making a life for myself. I’m sorry if that offends you, but I will not stop. I kind of like my job.”
His head fell to the side and his dark blue eyes studied her. Her fingers twitched at her sides. It took all her effort not to grab him by the sides of his face and pull his mouth down to hers. She’d kissed men before, well, they’d been boys and she’d been a girl. But, kissing hadn’t changed, had it?
The dragon man would never let her get so far, though. He was ready to strike, prepare for the worst at every turn. Prepared for her betrayal. How did she tell him that she was not some nefarious double agent? Not even the security system’s clearance had abated his worries.
Then again, she snuck a glance at him. What if he was only using it as an excuse to visit her again? No, that could not be right. The small, Welsh woman had claimed he was her mate. If that was true, then all the red dragon saw Farida as was a threat.
Do you have no fight in you? The beast’s voice was a soft hiss inside her head.
***
Rhys didn’t know what possessed him. He’d been given the day off and instead of catching a new movie, he was prowling around the Embassy like he did every day. But, this time he’d searched for the smell of hot sand in the air until it led him to her. It was like a line connected them through the maze of halls and rooms and all he had to do was pull until he found her.
What he’d found made his throat and his pants tight. She’d been on her hands and knees, ass presented in the air like a present. All it was missing was a pretty bow. Not that it would have lasted, he would have torn it off if only to get to the gift beneath. He’d crossed his arms over his chest to keep from touching the woman without her permission.
He would get it, her permission, that is. He would make her want him the way he wanted inside of her. The feeling, the need, was so strong once he closed the door behind him. No longer were there prying eyes in the halls. The walls were solid and provided him a small sanctuary with her.
Blasted woman. What was she doing here? She could very well be the mate of a white dragon, sent to ruin their new peace from the inside out. Not that she looked like them with her sun-kissed skin and dark tresses. She looked like she might have been a princess from an empire that baked beneath the sun, with her exotic complexion and the gold she wore around her wrists and fingers.
He couldn’t let his guard down around this creature. He couldn’t afford to let her destroy his family’s chance at a new life, especially with Rhiannon’s child on the way. The child could very well know a world where the red dragons were just another Welsh citizen. That was the hope everyone in his family clung to while they recuperated from the white dragon uprising.
Then, the woman stood up. She challenged him with her gaze, with her words and he couldn’t help but close the space between them. Despite his desire to protect his new world, he was acutely aware of the shape of her body. Rhys wanted to know what it would feel like, her body pressed against his.
He pushed forward, invading the bubble of warmth that circled her. What would the beast inside of her look like? Rhys let his eyes rake over her skin while he tried to see beneath it to the creature beneath the surface. What kind of beast was waiting inside of her? He wanted to know. He wanted to see the beauty that she might be.
“Why are you here, dragon?” Rhys’s voice was barely a whisper, putting a voice to a fear that chewed on his mind. “Are you telling me the truth? Or, should I escort you down to a holding cell before I’m too bewitched by you?”
Even as he spoke, his eyes couldn’t stop travelling over her. They traced the line of her ears and the gold studded along them. They traced the flat plane of her bare chest and the elegant chain that laid across it. She liked her jewelry, he thought absently.
She reached out to grab his hand. He flinched away, but after a long, hesitant pause, Rhys gave in. Her touch was like electrical sparks across his skin. Once they sparked up his arm and through his shoulder, he could feel what she was trying to show.
Heat.
No. Flame.
“Am I? Bewitching you, that is?”
His beast rose to greet it, purring like a cat. It basked in the warmth, feeling familiar and different all at once. Rhys’s eyes drifted closed.
He pressed her up against the wall, the hard planes of his body lining up with her softer ones. She turned those burning, gold eyes up to meet his and he felt his throat tighten. He couldn’t help the hand that rose to cover her throat, such a small fragile thing in his hand. One squeeze and the bone beneath might snap.
But, she didn’t flinch. Instead, she turned her chin upward in challenge. His mouth hovered over hers. Did he imagine the graze of her lips across his or were they really that close?
“Tell me you won’t betray us,” he whispered.
He waited, waited for her to give in. He waited for her to want it as badly as he did. Rhys could be patient, but only for so long.
If she didn’t…
If she said no…
He would have to storm from the room. He would have to leave the Embassy altogether. His beast wanted to
throw them at the woman. His beast had never been too smart of a creature. Call it youth, call it recklessness, call it stupidity.
But, before either could move further, an alarm split through the air. It was a harsh, dull sound that beat at their ears. The two jumped away from one another, Rhys leaping back and Farida sliding to the side. Now, they looked at each other across the space between them. Something still crackled there, but there was no time to inspect whatever it was.
Rhys lunged for the door and threw it open. The woman, Farida as he had recalled, followed hot on his heels. If this was her fault… he tried to ignore the feeling that he wouldn’t be able to stop her, that she would roll right over him and he would let her. That scared him. It scared him that he might not be able to protect his family’s future because of a woman.
He snatched a GOE agent sprinting through the hall before he could dart away and spun the agent to face him, to ask him what was happening. The agent stumbled over his words, adrenaline making his brain foggy. All that Rhys could gather was that a group was storming the Embassy from the outside.
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Chapter Four
Farida’s body still tingled from where it had aligned with the Welsh dragon man’s body. She wanted nothing more than to drag him back into the council room and push him back onto the computer desk, but the alarm piercing the air didn’t bode well.
It arrived at the right time. He had a mate, she reminded herself. No matter what her body wanted, she couldn’t sully the bond he had with another woman. It was wrong. It was vile.
Pulling in a breath now that the dragon man was no longer pressed against her, Farida tried to get her head on straight again. Something was happening. A low level alarm had been activated. The alarm would not shut down the building, but it would continue to blare into her sensitive ears.
Fated Dragons Complete Series: Books 1 - 5 Page 32